Recycling those Plastic Bags

9.14.00am GMT Tue 19th Jan 2010

Never leave home without a reusable bag

Did you know that 96% of all the world's plastic is not recycled?

For the past two years, local Lib Dems have been handing out leaflets about reducing the use of plastic bags :

• Every plastic bag can last between 400 to 1000 years and the world uses between 500 billion and 1.2 trillion plastic bags each year.

• We use a plastic bag for approximately 12-20 minutes before disposing of it and only recycle 1 plastic bag in every 200 we use

• Nearly 90% of floating marine litter is plastic, 95% of the world's sea birds have eaten plastic and plastic kills at least 100,000 marine mammals annually

The only certain way of achieving a meaningful reduction in the use of plastic bags is for all supermarkets to charge for them. Those which do have achieved those huge reductions, but (particularly at Sainsburys) it's still possible to see trolleys laden with all the shopping in brand new plastic bags.

Many of us use bags-for-life or canvas ones : the best of those available last year were from Sainsburys (fold-away with popper), Wilkinsons (ditto) and the best was from Lester Bowden (not fold-away but soft fabric, large, strong and stylish).

A mindset of never leaving home without a reusable bag (just like taking a wallet or a purse), works well.

Try to reduce some everyday plastics and substitute them with recyclable materials

Giving up clingfilm proves a real challenge but is perfectly possible! Replacing it with a plate (covering cooked or raw food, also in its own plate or container) works ok, but better still is to use aluminium foil instead. This can be washed and re-used or recycled. Tupperware containers also work well for storage. There's nothing which needs to be microwaved with clingfilm on the top which cannot be cooked with another cover (obviously not foil), even if the cooking time has to be adjusted. Stop buying clingfilm and be inventive about substituting for it!